Motorists face a 30-mile detour if they refuse to pay to use Britain’s first
toll road in a decade.

Detailed proposals to modernise the A14 in Cambridgeshire were condemned by the AA after it emerged that drivers are unlikely to be offered a viable free alternative to the proposed Huntingdon by-pass.

Drivers will be charged up to £1.50 to use the new toll road seven days a week from 6 am to 10 pm.

Those who decline to do so will have to use the dogleg after the Highways Agency decided to downgrade the existing stretch of the A14, including demolishing a viaduct over a railway line.

Plans to retain the existing stretch of the A14 near Huntingdon were rejected by the Agency after it decided this would make it impossible to “achieve an acceptable level of tolling revenue.”

Tolling has been identified by the Coalition as the best way of providing new bypasses and roads. with the A14 identified as a template for other schemes aimed at tackling congestion.

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Ministers have promised that drivers will not have to pay to use existing roads – unless they are “improved beyond recognition.”

But details of the plans to upgrade the A14, a key artery between East Anglia and the Midlands, have set alarm bells ringing among motoring groups.

"Many drivers will see the tolling proposal as the thin end of the wedge or a Trojan horse to introduce wider tolling,” said Edmund King, the AA’s president.

"UK motorists pay £46bn in motoring taxes each year and yet barely a quarter of that goes on road investment - asking drivers to pay to use the A14 with possibly no alternative free route is a double whammy.”

Motorists will pay online or at nearby outlets, with their movements being tracked by automatic number plate recognition cameras.

Drivers who dodge the toll could face a £120 fine rising to £180 after 28 days.

Some drivers, for example families in the East Midlands planning a motoring holiday in Europe, could be hit with two sets of tolls between their home and the Channel Ports.

Not only would they have to pay up £1.50 to use the new 12-mile bypass, but they will also be charged £2 to use the Dartford River Crossing.

Work on the A14 bypass, part of a £1.5 billion scheme which will see improvements on around 25 miles of road, is due to begin in 2016, with the scheme coming into operation in 2020.

While the AA condemned the proposals, Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation said that national of pay as you drive road-pricing was needed to tackle congestion.

However Prof Glaister criticized the piecemeal approach adopted by the Government, which he said could create a postcode lottery for motorists.

Stephen Hammond, Roads Minister, said the scheme was the best solution for tackling congestion.

“It’s the best option for people living locally, and for the businesses that see it as a gateway to international markets via the ports on the East coast. It will provide better journeys for long-distance and local traffic, putting the right vehicles on the right roads.”